WHOEVER WILL CAREFULLY study the
matter we believe will agree that a moderate
amount of self-esteem is a great aid to success
in the present life.
It gives a self-confidence
in respect to all of life's affairs,
great and small.
It impels its possessor to
do and to dare to the full extent of his
abilityif caution be lacking it may lead
on to disastrous folly.
But the lack of self-confidence,
self-esteem, has held back thousands
who otherwise might have been brilliant leaders in
the path of progress.

Having pointed out some of the advantages of reasonable
self-confidence we should point out some of the disadvantages
of over-confidencetoo great self-esteem.
Its
arrogance, its pride, its snobbishness, are disgusting and
continually interfere with the progress of the unfortunate
possessor.
He never learns except by bitter experiences,
because he always thinks he knows, and exposes
his ignorance.

Some of the best people, the saintly, have small self-esteem,
depreciate their own talents and exaggerate
their own blemishes.
Their humbleness of mind is a
blessing when it leads them to Godto the Throne of
Heavenly grace for forgiveness and for grace to help in
every time of need.
As between too much and too little self-esteem, therefore, our choice should be the latter.

"LET A MAN THINK SOBERLY"

Whether born with too much or with too little self-esteem,
those who come into God's family are put into
the School of Christ to be taught, correctedmade right,
in harmony with Divine standards.
Those naturally self-conceited
must learn meeknessby instructions if they
willotherwise by experiences.
And they should learn to
rejoice even in humiliating experiences. They are evidences
that God's providence is supervising their affairs
and preparing them for the Kingdom; for without meekness
and humility none will be fit for it.

As the self-conceited must learn humbly to trust God
and not rely on themselves and thus secure balance, so
the naturally self-depreciative must learn a lesson of confidence.
Not self -confidence, not self -reliance is the most
desirable, but rather confidence in God and reliance upon
His promised "grace to help in every time of need."
This maintains the desirable humility and meekness, yet
gives the courage and force suggested by the Apostle's
words: "I can do all things through Christ, which
strengtheneth me." (Phil. 4:13.)
As St. Paul again declares,
"Our sufficiency is of God!"

Thus inspired by faith in God and in His promises
those "taught of God" become marvelously "strong in the
Lord, and in the power of His might." (Eph. 6:10.)
The
righteous is strong as a lion, saying, "I will not fear what
man may do unto me." (Psa. 118:6.)
I will not heed
what man may say of me or do to me.
So long as I have
the Almighty Creator for my Father and the Redeemer
for my elder Brother I shall be content, relying on their
"exceeding great and precious promises."

Here note the Apostle's exhortation that a man "think
of himself not more highly than he ought, but think
soberly," according to the measure of God's grace bestowed
on him. (Rom. 12:3.)
If any man has received
none of God's grace, favor, mercy, forgiveness, surely
it is not because he did not need it.
Let him therefore
feel his poverty without it.
If any man has received
much of God's grace it was because he needed it.
He
therefore may boast, but not of himself.
His boast may
well be in God who is thus working in him "to will and to do of His good pleasure."Phil. 2:13.

LACK OF SELF-APPRECIATION

This deficiency operates in many ways not generally
suspected.
Many a man is a beggar or a thief simply
because of a lack of self-appreciation.
He thinks, I am
nobodyand everybody knows it.
He hangs his head in
self-shame.
He has a guilty look without having committed
crime.
He is treated according to his estimate
of himself as expressed in his acts and looks, all of which
reflect unconsciously his mental picture of himself.

When some, measuring him by his looks, declare: You
are a mean man, a rascal, a thief, a scoundrel; I can see
itI can read you through and through! the effect is to
thoroughly discourage him.
Accepting the rating of his
own brain and its reflection in the words of others he
becomes rascal, scoundrel, thief.
Few there are of
benevolent heart to see the trouble of this class and
sympathetically to give an encouraging wordto turn the
scale and help bring forward the better qualities of the
mind and heart.

Ah, the change!
The discouraged one says, Then I
am not beyond hope; not so mean, not so degraded that
Jesus would pass me by.
The very suggestion inspires
new hope.
If followed, it leads on and on to the riches
of God's grace provided in Christ for the penitent, the
willing, the obedient.

By the time such a man receives the begetting of the
Holy Spirit and is able to cry, "Abba, Father!" old things
pass away and all things become new.
However, his
fleshly weaknesses and unworthiness may still continually
cry, You are unworthy; however, still in humility, he may
acknowledge this with groans and tears, he is not cast
down!
He has God's assurance that he is a New Creature in Christ, whose perfect spirit body awaits him in the
First Resurrection.
He has the assurance that God
knows of his fleshly weaknesses, and has made provision
for his forgiveness through Christ, the Advocate.
He
has the assurance that it is not the flesh that God expects
to perfect, but the New Creature, the heart, the will.
He has the assurance that he is a son of God and a joint-heir
with Christ in His great Messianic Kingdom, which
soon is to bless the world.
He has the assurance that all
present trials of faith and patience and loyalty to God, to
the Truth and to the brethren are permitted to test his
heart-loyalty, without which he could not be a joint-heir
in Messiah's Kingdom.
These Divine assurances make
strong the weak and give courage not only in respect to
the future life, but also in the affairs of the present.
No
wonder the Bible speaks of the followers of Christ as transformed and mind-renewed!Rom. 12:2.

IN RESPECT TO PHYSICAL HEALTH

It may surprise some to learn that lack of self-confidence
affects physical health as well as morals.
Physiologists
are agreed that the mind has much to do with
the operation of all the human functions.
The man deficient
in self-esteem not only feels mean in respect to
other affairs of life, but he lacks physical tone, snap,
energy, so necessary to our best success in any avenue of
life.
How hope, joy, peace, content can affect the liver,
spleen and stomach none can explain; but the fact is conceded.
How despair and hopelessness can and do affect
not only the various functions of the brain but the heart,
stomach, liver, gall, etc., we cannot explain; but the fact
is conceded.

The person lacking self-esteem is disgusted with himself
and ready to imagine any disease, and is proportionately
predisposed to diseases.

Wisely, therefore, physicians and philosophers are advising
people to hold up their heads; not to become discouraged;
not to imagine every sensation a symptom of a
dangerous disease.
This salutary advice is good for such:
to look on the brighter side of life; to think of being
strongto imagine themselves strong, healthy, happy,
and to feel and to be as nearly perfect as their imperfect
minds and bodies will permit.
This anti-bilious view of
life is sure to bring encouragement and blessing to some.

But nothing will so thoroughly offset the burdens of
life as the grace of God.
Whoever receives the "wedding
garment" no longer is so overwhelmed by the appearance
of the filthy rags of his own unrighteousness.
Whoever
realizes that as a son of God and follower of the
Savior he is an ambassador for God has no time specially
to pamper and coddle his flesh, nor to make its care his
paramount thought.
He must be about his Heavenly
Father's business!
He must make use of his ambassadorship!
He must "show forth the praises of Him who called
us out of darkness into His marvelous light!"

The effect of these new ambitions, hopes, aims, upon
his physical health is often marvelous.
It serves as a
spiritual nerve-tonic.
It stimulates the mortal to service
Divine.
The new mind does not suggest carelessness of
the mortal bodynor yet carefulness, except to the extent
that necessary care may obtain the larger results to God's
glory from the consumption of the human energies.
Hence, as St. Paul says, "Godliness is profitable unto all
things, having the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come."I Tim. 4:8.